Monday, October 1, 2007

The Brown Daily Herald M onday, O ctober 1, 2007

Volume CXLII, No. 79

Since 1866, Daily Since 1891

Lead-contaminated water found in campus buildings

By Whitney Eng Contributing Writer

Chris Bennett / Herald

Hundreds of students marched silently on the Main Green Friday in support of protests against Myanmar’s military regime.

300 rally in red for Myanmar

By Sam Byker Contributing Writer

Hundreds of students dressed in shades of red and purple gathered Friday at noon on Lincoln Field to draw the campus’ attention to ongoing anti-government protests in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar.

Attendees at the event — organized by Brown’s recently inaugurated chapter of the U.S. Campaign for Burma — were urged to wear red or maroon to show solidarity with Myanmar’s monks, whose rust-covered robes have come to symbolize the protests.

The demonstration, which included several speeches followed by a silent march around the Main Green, was possibly the largest gathering in support of Myanmar on an American campus, according to the Brown chapter’s director, Patrick Cook-Deegan ’08.

Over the past week, peaceful crowds of up to 100,000 have taken to the streets in Myanmar — formerly known as Burma — only to be brutally dispersed by the military junta that has ruled the country for decades. Dissident groups have put the death toll as high as 200, the Associated Press reported.

The United States and members of the European Union have condemned the Myanmar regime’s actions and have begun freezing finances of leaders associated with the junta. President Bush has called on countries in the region to pressure Myanmar to end its violent

INSIDE:

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ARTS & CULTURE

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Several University buildings, including the applied math building and Meiklejohn House, were found to have high levels of lead-contaminated water, according to a study conducted by a group of Brown undergraduates last spring.

Environmental science students Libby Delucia ’09, Matthew Wheeler ’09 and Megan Whelan ’09 set out to compare lead levels in drinking water in some of the oldest and newest buildings on campus, and they were alarmed by what they found.

“I don’t think we ever expected to find something like this,” Delucia said.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the acceptable amount of lead in water is 15 parts per billion. In some of the oldest buildings on campus, the students found lead levels reaching 15 parts per million — more than 10 times the federal limit.

“It’s just really surprising that Brown wouldn’t have done anything about this or have told their employees sooner,” Whelan said.

The students who conducted the study sent their report and a copy of the raw data to Stephen Morin, director of environmental health

and safety.

“I think we’re going to take this opportunity to look into it further, and if there’s a need, we will make recommendations on how to fix the problem,” Morin told The Herald.

Morin said he wasn’t surprised that the students found high levels of lead in the water, and that flushing the water for some time helped to decrease those numbers.

The students conducted the study as part of ENVS 0490: “Environmental Science in a Changing World,” a spring semester course taught by Steven Hamburg, associate professor of environmental sciences. The students’ initial assignment was to look at the influence of heavy metals on the environment, and the group decided to focus their efforts on College Hill.

The students took water samples from taps on the highest and lowest floors of some of Brown’s oldest and newest buildings and compared the amount of lead found in drinking water from each.

Meiklejohn House and the applied math building are two of the oldest non-renovated buildings on campus, and levels of lead found in some water samples from these buildings greatly exceeded the continued on page 4

Bombing, hijacking exercise staged at airport

crackdown.

A few minutes after noon Friday, Andrew Lim ’08 mounted a platform on Lincoln Field to address the crowd. Lim, whose parents emigrated from Myanmar 25 years ago, has been a leader of the Brown chapter of the campaign since its founding earlier this semester.

“The Burmese government is extremely scared,” Lim said. “This might be the time that they can finally fall. ... One day maybe we can all say together that we helped to overthrow this terrible regime.”

A number of speakers from the Watson Institute for International Studies also addressed the crowd.

Former Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, now a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, spoke first, excoriating the Bush administration for responding insufficiently to the crisis.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a visiting professor of Latin American studies and the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, lamented the intractable nature of the situation.

“Every morning I ask myself: ‘How many dead?’ ” he told the assembled crowd.

Pinheiro will attend a special U.N. session on Myanmar next week in Geneva, and he promised to carry the crowd’s message with him.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former president of Brazil who is a professor-at-large at the Watson Institute for International Studies,

By Nandini Jayakrishna Senior Staff Writer

WARWICK — A bomb exploded in the upper-level departure terminal area of T.F. Green Airport late Thursday night, leaving more than 12 passengers wounded or unconscious and creating a diversion as unidentified terrorists proceeded to hijack a US Airways plane on the north ramp of the airfield with about 40 passengers aboard.

The “terrorist attack” was part of an exercise to test response time, security measures and coordination among various federal, state and local agencies in the face of such crises.

METRO About 150 volunteers and 25 agencies took part in the drill, including the Transportation Security Administration, the FBI, the Rhode Island State Police and Rhode Island Hos-

pital. The Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program paid for the exercise.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that all airports conduct such exercises every three years.

Thursday’s simulation was the largest to be conducted at T.F. Green in 20 years, said Patti Goldstein, spokeswoman for the Rhode Island continued on page 4

‘Hold that line’: Simmons on football

By Michael Bechek Senior Staf f Writer

Some football fans enjoy closefought gridiron battles that go right down to the last second. President Ruth Simmons is not one of them.

“I’m all about lacerating the other team,” she said.

In that case, Simmons may have picked the wrong game to attend in Saturday’s 49-42, double overtime loss to the University of Rhode Island, despite the pleasant weather.

Just over an hour before game time (12:30 p.m.), Simmons arrived at the white tailgating tent outside Brown Stadium, dressed in a bright red, slightly oversized Brown Basketball jacket and carrying a black purse.

Ashley Hess / Herald

continued on page 4

ANNA NICOLE LIVES Tara Schuster ‘08 has penned a play about the life of Anna Nicole Smith, opening at PW this week.

5

continued on page 6

Cheerleader-in-chief Ruth Simmons got riled up at Saturday’s football game.

CAMPUS NEWS

DIGGING UP THE HILL Students in “The Archaeology of College Hill” are excavating history at the First Baptist Church.

11

OPINIONS

195 Angell Street, Providence, Rhode Island

THE BIG MOVE Alison Schouten ‘08 has tips for moving buildings around campus after Peter Green’s recent relocation.

12 SPORTS

RAMS BEAT BEARS The football team fell in a hard-fought Governor’s Cup game, 49-42, to the University of Rhode Island.

News tips: herald@browndailyherald.com

T oday Page 2

Monday, october 1, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

We a t h e r

But Seriously | Charlie Custer and Stephen Barlow

Today

TOMORROW

partly cloudy 71 / 52

partly cloudy 69 / 58

Menu

Sharpe Refectory

Verney-Woolley Dining Hall

Lunch — Black Bean and Sweet Potato Ragout, Chinese Green Beans, Chicken Fingers, Meatball Grinder, Apple Tarts, Chocolate Krinkle Cookies

Lunch — Pepperoni French Bread Pizza, Vegan Stuffed Peppers, Italian Marinated Chicken, Baked Potato Bar, Chocolate Krinkle Cookies

Dinner — Vegetable Cheese Casserole, Shrimp Bisque, Vegetarian Harvest Corn Chowder, Beef Shish Kabob, Whole Beets, Raspberry Mousse Torte Cake

Dinner — Country-style Baked Ham, Gnocchi a la Sorrentina, Scalloped Green Tomatoes, Stir Fry Station, Chocolate Cream Pie

Vagina Dentata | Soojean Kim

Sudoku Nightmarishly Elastic | Adam Robbins

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.

Octopus on Hallucinogens | Stephanie Le and Toni Liu

RELEASE DATE– Monday, October 1, 2007 © Puzzles by Pappocom

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

C

o ssw or d Lewis Edited by RichrNorris and Joyce Nichols

ACROSS 1 Caesar’s “vidi” 5 Windows XP successor 10 Online auctioneer 14 Zilch, to Pedro 15 Lucy’s landlady 16 Beget 17 Knockoffs 19 Tartan-wearing group 20 Like photo finishes 22 Connors lost to him in the 1975 Wimbledon final 23 Suffix meaning “to some degree” 24 NYPD alert 25 __ Moines 27 Become extinct 30 Word processor’s “Cancel that last step” 33 Muscle/bone connector 37 Darker-than-beer brew 38 Unbelievably favorable 41 Communication for the deaf: Abbr.

42 Four pecks 43 Citrus coolers 44 Batter’s headgear 46 Comics scream 48 __ it in for: holds a grudge against 49 Precious stone 52 Prefix with conference 55 Before a winner can be determined 59 Hawaiian island 60 Sort in compartments 61 Director Meyer 62 In pieces 63 From square one 64 Thorn site, on a flower 65 Succinct 66 Work the bar DOWN 1 Monogram ltr.

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4 Protective pooch 5 Say no to, as a bill

6 Formal “Who’s there?” answer 7 Pumps and platforms 8 Decalogue’s last 9 What’s more 10 Prison break, e.g.

11 “Hot 100” magazine 12 North or South Asian sea that was once part of a single body 13 Japanese money 18 Sheltered, at sea 21 Wouk’s mutinied minesweeper 26 Guinness, in a bar 27 Paso __: twostep 28 Chimney passage 29 Shipping and handling, for instance 30 Brigham City’s state 31 Cyrano had a big one 32 Real estate for Barbie 34 Mag. staff 35 Unspecified degree 36 Anonymous John

39 Corpulent 40 Words accompanying a punch 45 “Little Red Book” ideology 47 School attended by 18 former British prime ministers 49 Bone to pick 50 “Pomp and Circumstance” composer

51 Mike who voiced Shrek 53 Sierra __: African republic 54 Talk show host DeGeneres 55 Stretched tight 56 Pit-__: heart sound 57 Mall carryall 58 Lascivious 59 Doubtfire’s title

Classic How To Get Down | Nate Saunders

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Classic Deo | Daniel Perez

xwordeditor@aol.com

10/1/07

T he B rown D aily H erald Editorial Phone: 401.351.3372 Business Phone: 401.351.3260

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By Curtis Yee (c)2007 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

10/1/07

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A rts & C ulture MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

page 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Prof to turn Eiffel Tower into sound art

salomon slam

By Sarah Gordon Contributing Writer

Oona Curley / Herald Spoken word poets (from left to right) Derrick Brown, Buddy Wakefield, Mike McGee, Dan Leamen and Anis Mojgani performed last night to a packed Salomon 101 as part of the Solomon Sparrow’s Electric Whale Revival Tour.

Brown theater critiques US Weekly ‘stars’

By Lydia Gidwitz Arts & Culture Editor

Opening Thursday, the new play “Be Brave, Anna!” which recounts the tragic rise and fall of tabloid superstar Anna Nicole Smith, is the product of a completely student-run theater production. Tara Schuster ’08 wrote and directed the play independent of the Brown theater group Production Workshop.

“The basic idea was to collapse French melodrama over the story of Anna Nicole Smith and see what has become virtue in this age of reality TV,” Schuster said.

While taking HIST 1973P: “City as Modernity: Popular Culture, Mass Consumption, Urban Entertainment in 19th Century Paris” with Professor of History Mary Gluck, Schuster became intrigued by melodrama as an art form.

“Melodrama today is a pejorative term, but in 19th-century France, it was the most popular art form of the day,” Schuster said. “I was trying to rescue this degraded art form, this joke theater.”

Melodrama — with its clear distinctions between evil and good — provided the ideal framework for expressing reality television and celebrity-obsessed culture through the tragic story of Anna Nicole Smith, Schuster said.

“This tawdry form of cult of personality is the new freak show,” Schuster said. The play examines “celebrities who become aliens.”

Putting together “Be Brave, Anna!” began when Schuster was studying abroad in Paris during the mysterious death of Anna Nicole Smith in February.

America was represented as a land of “rich blond heiresses drugged out of their minds” Schuster said. So working within that paradigm, Schuster wrote the rough draft. Yet the play is the result of a truly collaborative process.

Though she wrote a rough draft in Paris, Schuster rewrote the script this summer in Providence, she said. She e-mailed friends whom she had worked with in previous productions asking if they would like to be involved.

“Surprisingly, ever yone said yes,” Schuster said. “That shows

how fascinated everyone is by Anna Nicole Smith’s life.”

Because Schuster’s show is not affiliated with PW, she and her friends had complete creative control. “It’s a bunch of friends hanging out and being creative,” said Lauren Fischer ’08, production director and costume designer for the show.

Another friend, Herald Staff Writer Jessica Kerry ’08, has curated a “museum” display for the show. Upon entering the theater space, audience members will pass through an exhibit of reality television and celebrity culture which is “based off of a curiosity shop,” said Schuster.

“In PW, there is a show packet,

but now we just play it by ear and do what needs to be done. There is no book to follow which is really scary,” Schuster said.

The play and will be performed in the upstairs space at PW. There is no selection process for the upstairs space, said Alexander Rosenthal ’08, a PW board member who runs the space. “There is a lottery because it is in such high demand,” Rosenthal said. “The directors run the gambit from freshman who’ve never directed before to experienced directors like Tara.”

“You can just come in and do it on your own,” said Schuster.

The play runs Thursday through Saturday.

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The Eiffel Tower is probably the most familiar tourist attraction in Paris, but international sound artist China Blue is taking a fresh look at the famous landmark in her latest work. Last Friday, the Brown adjunct professor and fellow in psychology — who also taught a sound-art lecture and studio course at the University last summer — recorded acoustic material to create a sound installation of the iconic monument.

Blue’s audience will hear a combination of her recordings: the ambient acoustics, such as voices and the sound of footsteps, and the actual vibrations of the steel of the monument. In an e-mail to The Herald last week, Blue wrote that she planned to use a binaural recorder, which “mimics the experience of a person as they walk though a space” by using two microphones to recreate the spatial alignment of the ears.

To capture the sonic vibrations, Blue will use geophones, which she wrote are “the same tool used in geology to measure seismic activity.”

Blue is currently in the process of analyzing the material and is unsure of the exact form the installation will take, she wrote.

Even Blue herself could not anticipate how a variety of sonic factors would affect her piece. She expected, however, to capture “not only the vibrations of the steel on steel and the rivets, but also the vibrations caused by the elevators, the people walking up the stairs and the effect

of the wind.”

If allowed access to the machine room, she planned to record the sound of the mechanics in operation, including the enormous elevator gears oiled in the traditional method, with lard.

The “intersection of architecture and the people who use it” first drew Blue into working with sound as an artistic medium. Imagining sound as “energy made physical” has allowed Blue to create sonic manifestations of other sculptures, albeit none on the same scale as the Eiffel Tower.

Blue cited her “acoustic documentation” of a thirteen-foot tall steel sculpture by Richard Serra as a precursor to her latest project, describing the result as “like a breathing machine.”

For her Eiffel Tower installation, Blue wrote that she wishes to continue exploring “social dynamics” in the context of a “unique engineering accomplishment.” It is clear that the scale of the monument is of particular interest to Blue — she noted that it boasts “2,500,000 rivets and 18,038 pieces of steel weighing a total of 7,300 tons.”

Blue has received assistance from Brown faculty in implementing her Eiffel Tower project. Some of the specialized equipment is on loan from the laboratories of Professor of Psychology Andrea Megela Simmons and Professor of Biology James Simmons. Assistant Professor of Psychology Seth Horowitz is an on-site advisor to the project and has assisted Blue with both writing and recording procedures.

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MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

‘Hijacking’ exercise tests High lead levels found in campus water local first responders continued from page 1

continued from page 1 Airport Corporation, at the scene Thursday night.

Exercise par ticipants went through an hour-long training the week before and received a script telling them how to act once the exercise began. Volunteers included airport staff, off-duty policemen, Red Cross volunteers and students from local colleges “and people interested in seeing what happens,” said Rebecca Pazienza, community affairs manager of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, also at the airport that night.

No sirens were used during the exercise because people in nearby hotels might get scared, Goldstein said. Information was sent out to incoming planes so that passengers would be aware of the exercise.

Soon after the “explosion,” airport police entered the terminal to see if it was safe for Warwick police and firefighters to come in to look for more explosives. About 20 minutes later, firefighters came in to escort injured passengers to Rhode Island Hospital ambulances. Five people were taken to Rhode Island Hospital to assess the hospital’s emergency response, Pazienza said. The airport police brought in two bomb-sniffing dogs to search baggage littering the terminal.

Participating agencies could have responded to the “attack” almost immediately — since, this time, they knew it was coming — but police, firemen and ambulances delayed their arrival to more closely resemble the time it would take to respond to a real attack, Pazienza said.

Chuck Larcom, the deputy exercise director, said an actual terrorist attack on the most secure areas of the airport is “highly unlikely” because the airport’s security is “very good.”

“To train people you have to make up things sometimes that may not be as realistic as they could be,” he said at the airport Thursday. Larcom gave the exercise an “A” because everyone involved responded promptly

and “tried to do their best.”

Volunteers said they enjoyed being part of an exercise designed to test and improve security at the airport.

Heather Emerick MS’95, who played a conscious but wounded victim in the terminal, said she tried to act naturally so the situation would seem more real.

“I pretended that my wedding pictures were in my suitcase so (the rescuers) had to convince me to let my suitcase go,” said Emerick, now a consultant in learning and professional development in Brown’s human resources department.

Another par ticipant, Daniel White, said he decided to be part of the exercise because he thinks it was something “the government needs help with.”

“I’ll sit there and lay on the floor if it’ll make them respond to things faster,” he said. “Saving people’s lives is important.”

The passengers of the “hijacked” plane saw a little more action as the “terrorists” yelled at them and called them “infidels and American pigs,” said Corey Cantrell, a junior at Johnson and Wales University, who was on board the aircraft.

“They sent everyone to the back of the plane, and when someone rebelled, they took them to the front,” he said. “They said they weren’t here to harm Americans, but then they began ‘executing’ some people,” Cantrell said, adding that the “terrorists” were looking for a Saudi prince.

“They made it pretty realistic,” he said.

Emerick said she decided against playing a passenger on the plane because it was “a bit too close for comfort.”

“I fly a lot and it freaked me out a little bit,” she said. “It seemed a little bit more real than I would’ve liked.”

Pazienza said, though the attack was not based on a real terrorist attack, the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency works with federal organizations to incorporate typical terrorist tactics into the exercise.

federal limit. The level of lead found in the applied math building reached as high as 15 parts per million, the highest recorded by the students.

Newer buildings, such as the Sidney E. Frank Hall for Life Sciences and the Watson Institute for International Studies, had lead levels of practically zero.

By taking water from the tap at 10-, 15- and 30-second intervals, the students found that levels of lead in water were greatly reduced as time increased. The students all agreed that running the tap first thing in the morning can significantly decrease the levels of lead found in the water.

“The main conclusion that we drew is that even in the new buildings, running the water for at least 10 seconds can really help. I always run the water for a while now,” Wheeler said.

Morin said that running the tap for at least 30 seconds, especially in the morning, “is a good habit.”

Of course, doing so wastes water, which the students acknowledge is another environmental issue.

“Do you train everyone to just not drink that first pulse of water, or do you actually fix the problem?”

Hamburg said.

According to Delucia, “testing water is really simple — it just

teaches us that for issues of environmental health, just do the most obvious thing.”

Lead in drinking water can lead to a variety of adverse health effects, including physical and mental development problems in children. Adults who have been drinking lead-contaminated water for many years have been found to have high blood pressure and kidney problems.

The greatest exposure to lead often comes from swallowing or breathing in paint chips and dust containing the metal. Lead in drinking water is usually due to the corrosion of plumbing materials made of lead in homes.

“Homes built before the 1970s are likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder,” Hamburg said.

In the past, student projects for the environmental sciences course found that Hamburg’s own home contained lead pipes and solder, prompting him to replace the pipes and renovate his home.

William Yandik GS, a teaching assistant for the course, was surprised the students found such significant variance. He said there was an unequal distribution of where buildings with high levels of contaminated water were located, noting that some buildings were “hot spots.”

After the students collected the data and analyzed the numbers, their work was reviewed with the help of Environmental Science

and Technical Manager David Murray.

“We’re really confident that the numbers the students get are real,” Hamburg said.

Both Yandik and Hamburg agreed that the results from the student-initiated projects often prompt changes in instructors’ behavior.

“I bought a Brita because of this course,” Yandik said.

Faculty members who work in the buildings that were found to have high lead levels had mixed reactions about what the students found.

“I’m not surprised, but it doesn’t make me particularly happy either,” said Govind Menon, assistant professor of applied mathematics.

Kevin Leder, a graduate student in the department, said he used to drink tap water but since hearing that the building’s pipes may be leaching lead, he has switched to bottled water.

Currently, there is no standardized schedule for checking the lead levels of water in University buildings, Morin said. Dorms were not included in the students’ initial study, but Morin told The Herald he may pursue testing those buildings as well.

Morin has discussed the issue with Facilities Management as a result of the students’ report, saying that “the report prompts education, and it’s definitely something that we’ll be looking into.”

Hundreds march on Green for Burma continued from page 1 also criticized the United States’ actions in the crisis. “It is not enough to put more sanctions on,” Cardoso said, adding that as a former world leader, he would do all he could to aid the people of Myanmar.

Wenli Xu, a famed Chinese prodemocracy advocate who spent 16 years in prison, told the crowd through an interpreter, “I see that we are all wearing red today. ...

This represents that there is red in the fire of our hearts. We’re here in support of democratic change, and for that I would like to thank all of you.”

Xu, who was dressed in a crimson t-shirt and baseball cap, is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute.

Following the brief speeches, Lim and other campaign members led the crowd in a silent march around the Main Green. They

circled three times before turning toward the lawn in front of Faunce House.

As the crowd dispersed, a reporter for the NBC Providence affiliate WJAR — dressed in a blindingly red suit — interviewed Lim and several others for Providence NBC affiliate WJAR. Several elements of the event came together at the last minute, said Adriane Lesser ’08, one of the march’s organizers. Chafee agreed late Thursday night to attend, and all of the other speakers confirmed the morning of the march. An audio system arrived just 30 minutes before noon.

Joel Tracy ’09 heard about the march in an e-mail from his lacrosse coach. “I think the main point was, ‘There’s going to be this big thing on Friday, just make sure you wear red.’

It had an outline of the whole situation, and it was tough to ignore,”

Tracy said. “You see the sacrifices of the monks out there, and it doesn’t seem too hard to come out.”

About 300 students took part in the march, and many more on campus wore red or maroon shirts to show their support. An event of that size “doesn’t happen very often at Brown,” said James Chaukos ’09 of Amnesty International.

He added that much of the march’s appeal came from its straightforward message. “It’s a simple concept,” Chaukos said. “All you have to do is wear a red shirt and show up at 12:00.”

Cook-Deegan first introduced the idea of a campus march at a meeting Tuesday night, and for the next three days group members worked frantically to spread their message through tableslips, e-mail listservs, Facebook invitations and an information table set up in the center of campus.

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c ampus n ews MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Final Banner changeover set for December

By Mollie Javerbaum Contributing Writer

The final step of implementing the electronic Banner system is set for December, with the conversion of 63,000 academic histories from the old Student Information System to Banner. The academic histories will be the last of 11 sets of records — including the University’s admission, financial aid and billing records, among others — to be converted into Banner.

SIS possess all the academic histories, or transcripts, for students who have attended the University since the fall of 1983, when it was implemented. After the transfer, the SIS system will be shut down permanently, and all student transcripts will be available only from Banner.

The conversion is currently in the second of four phases, said University Registrar Michael Pesta.

The first two phases involve copying the SIS data and converting it into a test environment, which is a duplicate of the actual database.

The team then compares the converted data to the original to check for inconsistencies.

“We are currently doing two things: checking the validity of the academic history data and simultaneously checking the Banner transcript program,” Pesta said. “We run the transcript out of SIS, run it out of Banner and sit there and compare the two, line-by-line and course-by-course.”

Pesta said the team is checking between 600 and 700 transcripts this way, selecting histories that contain examples of every transcript component, such as courses, grades, transfer credits and admission, Pesta said.

These phases are followed by pre-production — the “dress rehearsal,” Pesta said — and production phases, in which the data is converted permanently into the actual Banner database. Pre-production is set to start in October, and production is set to follow in November.

“Once you know you’ve gotten it all correct,” Pesta said about preproduction, “you do production conversion —­ now you’re ready for prime time.”

Following the data conversion, the registrar will also send out transcripts to certain student groups, such as Meiklejohn peer advisers, to be verified. During the first several weeks using Banner, the team will also manually compare each Banner transcript ordered to its SIS counterpart before sending it out.

With both registration and academic histories on Banner, the system will be able to check for fulfillment of prerequisites and bar students from registering for some courses if they have not fulfilled certain requirements. This will take effect for registration for the Fall 2008 semester, according to Associate Provost Nancy Dunbar, who is coordinating the Banner implementation effort.

Dunbar said University officials will remind faculty that prerequisites will be imposed and that professors can list recommended courses in their class descriptions instead of putting specific prerequisites into Banner.

“Some faculty list prerequisites with the intent to provide information to the student, and sometimes they really do want to make sure the student has taken a certain class and completed a certain subject matter,” Dunbar said. “They’ll have to think about when it is valuable for them to list something as a prerequisite and when it is not.”

Converting the academic histories into Banner will make it easier for faculty advisers to view student transcripts and for students and alums to order transcripts.

“Before, they had to send in or mail a check, but now students and alumni can log onto the Web site, order their transcripts and pay for them with credit cards, and we will produce and send them out the next day,” Pesta said.

Rebecca Ruscito ’09 said she sees this as a positive change.

“For me, to have everything in one place will make it more convenient, a little more synchronized,” she said.

Ruscito said she does not think the enforcement of prerequisites will be an issue.

“If they really want to get into a class, those dedicated people will still talk to the professor,” she said.

Laptop thefts double, DPS investigating

By Kristina Kelleher Senior Staff Writer

A total of 10 laptops have been reported stolen to the Department of Public Safety so far this semester, according to a Sept. 27 crime advisory e-mail sent to students by DPS. That number is more than double the number stolen in the same time period last year, Mark Porter, chief of police and director of public safety, told The Herald.

Seven of the 10 laptops were stolen from residence halls, two from academic and administrative buildings and one from a vehicle.

In most cases this year, students reported that they had left their door unlocked in their residence hall for a short time, during which the theft occurred, Investigative Super visor Lt. Kevin O’Connor told The Herald. In none of the stolen-laptop cases this semester has the department found evidence of forced entry.

Damage to the door and door frame was reported in a Sept. 3 incident at Olney House. However, the damage was not substantial, O’Connor said, and while it may be evidence of an attempted break-in, it was not the level of force required to force entry into a room. The damage reported in that case also “wasn’t consistent with the other thefts,” Detective Mark Edmonds, a campus police officer, told The Herald. Edmonds and O’Connor are part of DPS’s investigations unit.

The department currently has no leads in any of the cases, according to O’Connor. He also said DPS has “no reason to believe that there is any outside criminal activity that is influx. ... We believe it’s more an

Alanna Tisdale / Herald

The Department of Public Safety is investigating the recent rash of laptop thefts.

internal matter.”

O’Connor and Edmonds suggested the rash of thefts was likely the result of student-on-student criminal activity. DPS has been in contact with the Providence Police Department about the crimes, but O’Connor said the Providence Police were not aware of any increase in laptop thefts in the area.

The investigations unit at DPS has found other laptops stolen from students by students in the past.

Last year, it recovered one laptop stolen in this manner and was able to resolve the matter without criminal charges, O’Connor said.

The detectives work with officials at Computing and Information Services to try to track stolen computers on Brown’s network

by IP addresses and ethernet IDs. Edmonds recommends that community members document their computer’s IP address, Ethernet ID and serial number, all of which

make tracking and recovery more likely.

He also stressed the importance of timely reporting. “Students wait thinking it will show up,” he said, instead of reporting crimes immediately. A two-to-three day wait in reporting can allow a thief to access the computer’s system, clean it out and resell it before police tracking even begins, Edmonds said.

Students who want extra security for their property should consider using CyberAngel, Edmonds said. CyberAngel is software that allows police to track stolen computers. Connie Sadler, director of information technology security at CIS, said CyberAngel can now be purchased for a discount at the Brown Computer Store by students, faculty and staff, but only for Windows.

“There is nothing comparable continued on page 6

Courtesy of Kate Marino GS / Herald

Tyler Lucero ’10 sifts soil at the First Baptist Church archaeology site.

Archaeology class helps to dig up College Hill’s past

By Noura Choudhury Contributing Writer

This fall, 15 students enrolled in Archaeology 1900: “The Archaeology of College Hill” have started work on the second year of excavation at the First Baptist Church. Excavations at the church — the oldest Baptist church in the United States — are part of an ongoing collaboration between the church and the University’s anthropology department, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

The class, which is taught by Joukousky Institute doctoral candidate Kate Marino GS, focuses on unearthing clues to the main uses of the church’s meeting house in its early days. The church was built in 1775 and served as the third site for the original First Baptist Church founded in 1638 by Roger Williams, Rhode Island’s founding father.

This year’s excavation seeks to build on last year’s findings, which were mostly ceramics, coins and buttons dating from as early as the mid-1800s. Marino said last year’s most exciting discovery was a nearcomplete animal skeleton found near the front of the church, which the team suspects is the remnants of a pig roast. Quahog shells were also found near the side of the church, which the class concluded were evidence of frequent clambakes. The church’s written record also verifies social gatherings such as clambakes throughout the church’s history.

“This work opens up a new window to the history of the area. We’re trying to expand upon what was in the written record,” Marino said.

The class spends the first six weeks of the semester excavating and digging at the site and the remaining weeks analyzing artifacts in the lab. Marino and her team have isolated six test pits to perform their work, changing some of last year’s locations after they yielded poor results. Though digging this semester has only just begun, Marino said she hopes to uncover evidence of American Indians in the region, although last year’s findings did not yield any.

The class, which took only a few months to organize, began the project last fall largely thanks to the cooperation of the First Baptist Church, said Susan Alcock, professor of classics and director of the Joukowsky Institute. The church has been enthusiastic about collaborating with the University in the past — Brown’s annual Baccalaureate ceremony for graduating seniors is held there — and the class served as

a bridge between the University and the congregation, she added.

“I’d really like to thank the church — they should be acknowledged.

This (project) really came from them,” Alcock said.

Though the class is immediately focused on determining past uses of the church building, the larger continuing project of “Archaeology of College Hill” is to contribute to a greater understanding of College Hill’s past. One of Alcock’s aspirations is for the class to forge stronger bonds between the greater Providence area and the Brown community.

Alcock said she hopes to continue the project in the future for these reasons and for the rich experience it provides archaeology students.

“I’ve been delighted by the range of experiences that the students have been able to have. They’ve looked at aerial imagery of the site, they’ve done remote sensing, they’ve done historical research,” Alcock said. “It’s been more than just sinking holes into the ground.”

For Madeline Ray ’10, the course is everything Alcock described plus the opportunity to learn practical skills such as excavation. “I like digging up stuff. I used to dig up stuff in my backyard at home, and I decided to do it for real here,” she said.

Cindy Swain ’09 was drawn to the class by its hands-on opportunities as much as its historical aspect. “I had done some fieldwork before, and I wanted to do more. It just seemed like a fun class, and it was a good change of pace,” she said.

The semester’s findings will culminate in a final publication. Each student will contribute a five-minute oral presentation that will be combined with video footage from the semester in a final DVD and presented to the church congregation. These may also be posted online. The results of last year’s investigations were published in a paper titled “Churchyard Archaeology: Archaeological Investigations at the First Baptist Church in America.”

The class, which meets to excavate on Mondays afternoons, welcomes visitors to the site to observe the process. Students can also read field notes and look at photos from the dig site at the course’s page on the Joukowsky Institute’s Web site.

Marino hopes that one of the results of the class will be to get more students interested and exposed to archaeological methods.

“Compared to Rome and Portugal, this is way different,” Marino said. “This place isn’t isolated from the real world — it’s right here.”

Page 6

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

R-U-T-H cheers on the Bears at Saturday’s football game continued from page 1 She was met by Marisa Quinn, her assistant, and immediately began working the crowd, which was mostly made up of alums — whose hands she shook — and their young children, whom she knelt down to greet. She picked up a Brown football refrigerator magnet from a table near the tent’s entrance and insisted on paying the full $20 for a media guide.

“I feel bad taking this from you,” said the cashier, Laura Almeida ’06.

Simmons had also noticed a number of other attractions around the tent, including a raffle and a children’s moon bounce, but she noted that she was “probably ineligible” to participate in the raffle, and in the case of the moon bounce, likely to “fall on some poor child.”

She spent about 40 minutes making the rounds through the tent, engaging all who approached her but trying to make certain that she found a few VIPs. “We’re looking for Art Joukowsky,” she said, gazing around the tent for Chancellor Emeritus Artemis Joukowsky ’55 P’87, a Corporation member and longtime Brown football booster.

Realizing kickoff time was fast approaching, Simmons asked Quinn, “Are you going to leave me time to eat?” When Quinn suggested that she “grab something now,” Simmons sighed and headed to the buffet. “This is what I go through all the time,” she said.

“There’s no hot dogs,” Simmons said when she arrived at the head of the buffet line. “This is like real food. What happened to the junk food?”

She eventually settled on a small plate of buffalo wings and

half a baked potato, which she topped with onions, bacon and sour cream.

“We can’t be late for the game, now,” she reminded Quinn.

At last inside the gates, she began walking to the bleachers. On the way, she accepted a promotional laundry bag from a Bank of America coach bus parked behind the field, though she said she wasn’t sure why the bank was giving away laundry bags, of all things.

“It’s for collecting money,” someone suggested.

“I like that,” said Simmons, who — with nearly $400 million left to go in the University’s $1.4 billion capital campaign — may find it handy in the coming year. (She later said of the bag, “What kind of statement is Bank of America trying to make by giving away laundry bags? Laundered money?”)

She took her seat in the front row of the bleachers near midfield, by now having removed her red jacket and tied it around her waist. As the game began, Simmons cheered loudly, often standing and shouting, “Go Brown!”

After a 35-yard gain by the Bears early in the first quarter, she looked pleased and said, “Outstanding.”

She applauded enthusiastically as the Bears finished the drive with a rushing touchdown and went up 7-0.

Asked if she had a favorite player, she gestured toward the field and said, “All my favorites.” (Adding to something Quinn said, she agreed that Brown students were also “the best-looking students in the world.”)

On a later drive, still up by the same score, the Bears turned the ball over on downs inside the 10yard line after opting to go for the

touchdown rather than kick a field goal. A few minutes later, with the Rams threatening, Simmons commented, “We should’ve gone for that field goal.”

Defending her right to secondguess the decision, she pointed to the fans sitting in the Cardi’s Furniture promotional couches at the back of one end zone, saying, “If they can be armchair quarterbacks, I don’t see why we can’t.”

“We should’ve gone for that field goal.”

President Ruth Simmons

With Rhode Island now on Brown’s 2-yard line, Simmons stood and shouted, “Hold that line!” Nevertheless, the Rams scored, and the game was tied 7-7.

In the second quarter, with the Bears trailing 14-7, Simmons spotted a member of the Brown Band making his way over with a bucket of the band’s game-themed buttons, which poke fun at the other school and are sometimes vulgar.

“Oh, no, here come the buttons,” she said.

“Is this something I’m allowed to wear?” Simmons asked the band member.

“In a fight between a bear and an anchor, a bear would win,” this game’s button read. (It was perhaps more palatable than the one the band had made for football’s matchup against Duquesne Uni-

versity two weeks ago, which read, “Duquesne Suques.”)

“I’ll just put it inside my jacket,” she decided aloud, and pinned it on the inner side of her zipper.

Simmons said she feared the possibility of yet another contribution by the band — the “embarrassing” cheer of “Ruth” they often start up when they spot her in attendance at athletics events.

“We don’t want that,” she said.

But the chant came early in the second half.

“R-U-T-H, Ruth, Ruth,” the band began to cheer. Simmons turned and smiled at the band, giving them a thumbs up, before turning back around.

“Oh my God,” she said under her breath.

But Simmons said she did, in fact, like the band, saying she thought it was “fantastic” that they played a lot of “old tunes,” and she was disappointed when they left the field at the end of halftime.

“Well, the URI band took up all the time,” she said, meaning the feathered, serious group that had performed two long numbers before the Brown Band. “Well, I guess they’re okay,” she said of the URI band.

When, on one of the first plays of the second half, a Rams player ran almost untouched for 62 yards down to Brown’s 11-yard line, Simmons stood and yelled, “Oh, stop him!” as he ran past.

She again frowned at the playcalling when Brown regained possession and executed a mediocre 3-yard run.

“Right up the middle,” she said.

“I don’t get that.”

Bruno the Bear, Brown’s mascot, who had been roaming the stands, at last approached and held out his

large paw.

“Hi, bear,” Simmons said, obligingly slapping it.

Another visitor was Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri ’65, on hand to award the Governor’s Cup to the winning team.

As the Bears drove downfield, trailing the Rams 27-21, Simmons was sober. “This is nerve-wracking,” she said. When Buddy Farnham’s ’10 end-zone grab tied the game, Simmons shrugged a little as she applauded, saying, “It looked a little like he dropped it.”

Later in the game, when another call went Brown’s way — an apparent interception by the Rams negated because the defender and the receiver had “simultaneous possession” — Simmons raised her eyebrows.

“I’ve never heard of that,” she said.

When the Rams scored a latefour th-quar ter touchdown and made a two-point conversion to tie the game 35-35, Simmons was displeased.

“This is like my nightmare scenario,” she said. She recalled attending a stressful game between Harvard and Brown two years ago that went into double overtime, calling it “awful.”

When a holding penalty was called against the Bears on their final kickoff return of regulation, and the team decided to run out the clock to force overtime, Simmons sighed.

“Lovely,” she said.

The Bears were stopped a yard short of forcing a third overtime, and the Rams rushed onto the field in celebration. Simmons said she regretted the defeat, but seemed relieved that the game was over.

“What a game,” she said.

Laptop thefts on the rise continued from page 5 available for Macs that is in the same price range,” Sadler said. Through Brown, Cyberangel costs about $80 for a five-year license that is fully transferable.

“We’d like to make it mandatory, but it’s not — we’re not there yet,” Sadler said.

The residence halls where the thefts occurred include Vartan Gregorian Quadrangle A, three houses in Keeney Quadrangle and Olney House on Wriston Quadrangle.

The two incidents occurring in academic and administrative buildings occurred during the weekend of Sept. 15 and 16 at 68 1/2 and 70 Brown St. DPS is investigating the incidents in the academic and administrative buildings by looking at those who have access to the building and checking card-access records, but its focus right now is the residential investigations.

The residential halls are students’ homes, O’Connor said. “My top priority is making someone feel safe there.”

Kathryn Wiseman ’11, a first-year in Poland House, where one of the thefts occurred, said she doesn’t feel totally secure. “Ideally, people should be able to leave their doors open, but there are people out there who would do this,” she said.

Wiseman added that all Poland rooms have self-locking doors, so students just have to remember to pull them shut when they leave a room.

Students not locking their doors when leaving is a major concern for DPS. “We really encourage everyone to lock their rooms — no matter what the time period is,” O’Connor said.

Porter expressed concern over the high number of incidents and said the department is “doing additional crime awareness information in those areas.”

happy october

c ampus n ews MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

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U. digitizes century-old panorama Displaying a piece of art that is as long as a football field is not an easy task.

After coming into the “Garibaldi Panorama,” a 19th-century work measuring 273 feet long and four-and-a-half feet tall, the University Library and Department of Italian Studies have worked together to scan and digitize the artwork so that it will soon be available online.

The artwork, a long roll of parchment painted with bright watercolor, depicts the life and adventures of the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the founding fathers of Modern Italy. In over 40 different scenes ranging from massive battles to picturesque landscapes, the panorama is one of the longest and oldest surviving pieces of this style, which was popular in the 19th century.

“They were sort of like movie theaters of the day,” said Peter Harrington, curator of the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at the John Hay Library.

Huge crowds would gather to watch these massive parchments unrolled as a narrator explained the story or faraway lands they pictured. “Panoramas were entertainment, but also ways of informing the public,” he said.

Since it was completed by J. J. Story in England in 1860, the panorama has been unavailable for public view. It was stored in the late James Walter Smith’s personal collection until it was donated in 2005 and is now at the University’s library annex, which is 10 minutes from campus.

After raising money through grants and donations, the University was able to have the piece scanned. The double-sided parchment was unrolled in six-foot sections and photographed — a process that took three days to complete. The digitized image will be available soon on the Center for Digital Initiatives’ Web site and will allow viewers to scroll through the panorama, zoom in or freeze on scenes. The Web site will also include facts and history about the time periods and style of the panorama.

“I think as an academic library, we aspire to be open institutions for people to come in and use. One great thing about digitization is that it allows us to share what we have with a global audience that would never otherwise be able to see this,” said Brent Lang, a communication and marketing specialist for the University library.

— Caroline Sedano

Brown students know their history

By Daniel Valmas Contributing Writer “I’m not loving the wording of these questions,” Associate Professor of Political Science Wendy Schiller said of an Intercollegiate Studies Institute test administered to 14,000 freshman and seniors in Fall 2006 to survey college students’ civics knowledge. ISI’s report attacks higher education institutions for failing to teach American history, but Schiller said college education is not about regurgitating facts and dates.

“The ability to think analytically, the ability to construct an argument and deconstruct others” are the most important skills to develop in college, Schiller said. Schiller’s courses, including POLS 0820L: “Philosophy of the American Founding” and POLS 1130: “The American Presidency,” focus on many of the same concepts ISI sought to survey.

The ISI test, which was administered by the institute’s National Civic Literacy Board, included 60 multiple choice questions ranging from George Washington’s role in America’s founding to which group would most likely support Saddam Hussein. The test’s results were published in a September study, “Failing Our Students, Failing America: Holding Colleges Accountable for Teaching America’s History and Institutions,” which ranks the 50 universities sampled.

At Brown, seniors scored 65.6 percent on the test while freshman lagged behind them with a mean score of 63.4. Overall, Brown seniors scored fifth among the 50 colleges, beating out the likes of Princeton, Duke, and Cornell universities, but trailing Harvard and Yale. Harvard seniors had the highest mean score, with 69.6 percent.

The average American student scored just over 50 percent on this test, fueling ISI’s argument that colleges are neglecting their duty to students. “(C)olleges are failing to advance students’ knowledge of America’s history, government and free market economics and consequently not preparing their students to be informed and engaged citizens,” the National Civic Literacy Board

Austin Freeman / Herald

Brown scored fifth among 50 colleges in a national survey of civic literacy.

chair, Josiah Bunting, said in a press release.

Asked about the same survey’s last report, Associate Professor of History Michael Vorenberg questioned its relevance.

“I don’t know if the highest priority should be given to the knowledge about what was considered to be basic political knowledge 100 years ago,” Vorenberg told The Herald. “If you assume the facts that this poll reports are true, is this necessarily a problem?”

Schiller said the test’s emphasis on facts may be misplaced. “The single most important thing you can do (as a citizen) is to vote,” Schiller said. “My guess is that only about 30 percent of college students vote.”

When asked five of the ISI survey questions, two Brown students scored 80 percent, answering correctly questions about the Puritans, the New Deal, the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine.

But they incorrectly answered the

question about Saddam Hussein.

Robert Moore ’11, who plans to double-concentrate in chemistry and economics, said the test does adequately measure a student’s civic history thoroughly and everyone should be able to get a 100 percent.

He attributed his knowledge to his high school education, except for the question on Saddam Hussein.

But Anita Sekar ’10, an economics concentrator, said testing basic knowledge with multiple choice questions is not necessarily accurate.

She said her civics knowledge was thanks to her high school, and while she thinks it’s important to have a foundational knowledge of civics, the most important thing to do to be an engaged American citizen is “to keep up with what’s going (on) in the world.”

“I’m not sure if I’m going to take another U.S. history course, but it’s always a good idea to increase your civic knowledge,” she said.

Page 8

Rochelson: Playoff strengths continued from page 12 innings. It owes this success largely to 24-year-old Carlos Marmol, who out of nowhere has posted a 1.43 ERA and 12.5 Ks through nine innings in relief for the Cubs. With that said, I know I wouldn’t trust my one-run, ninth inning leads to Cubbies closer Ryan Dempster and his 4.73 ERA. If the Padres make the playoffs — which depends on today’s onegame playoff against the Rockies — their bullpen could help them pull off a few nail-biters in the playoffs. San Diego’s relief ERA was a beautiful 2.98 in 2007, the lowest in all of baseball. If starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Chris Young pitch to their abilities next week, relievers Cla Meredith, Heath Bell and closer Trevor Hoffman are among the best in baseball at slamming the door.

So what did we learn? The Yankees are clutch, but their relief is questionable. The Sox are only okay under pressure, but their bullpen is assembled like a work of fine art.

And the Diamondbacks are mediocre at everything. The truth is, the playoffs are very much an enigma, and that’s what makes them fun to watch.

Predicting the outcome is like Cecil Fielder stealing home — I wouldn’t advise it.

Ellis Rochelson ’09 will not do any homework in the month of October.

In close, tough game, Brown falls to URI, 49-42 continued from page 12 finished with 221 receiving yards, which tied for the fourth-most receiving yards in a single game in Brown history.

After Raymond provided the first of his big plays, running back Jonathan Edwards ’09 — filling in for the injured Knight — took a pitch from Dougherty and ran into the end zone untouched for his first of four touchdowns on the day.

URI’s first two drives resulted in an interception by cornerback Matt Mullenax ’08 and a punt, but on their third drive the Rams offense began to roll. Beginning at their own 20-yard line, Rhody drove 80 yards in just five plays, including 37 yards on a perfectly executed shovel pass to Jimmy Hughes. On the next play Rhody’s running back took a pitch, found a hole in the Brown defense and hit the paydirt to tie the game at 7-7.

URI then got the ball back at its own 42-yard line and moved the ball to the Brown 3-yard line, where Rhody took a 14-7 lead with 12:02 left in the second quarter on quarterback Derek Cassidy’s keeper.

With just 50 seconds remaining in the half, Brown rolled the dice.

On fourth and goal from the oneyard-line, the Bears opted to go for the touchdown and the gutsy decision paid off when Edwards took a pitch from Dougherty and found the end zone for a second time, to tie the score at 14.

In the second half, it took the Rams just 1:13 to re-take the lead.

After a 62-yard run, URI punched

W. soccer picks up win over Army, drops match to Columbia continued from page 12 in the second half when Mollie Mattuchio ’08 slipped a through ball to Cunningham, who shot the ball just wide.

Cunningham and Melissa Kim ’10 each took three shots for the Bears, and Sylvia Stone ’11 and Kerrilynn Carney ’08 each had two. Steffi Yellin ’10 recorded 4 saves in goal.

“It was a great game ... a hardfought battle,” Pincince said. “We did a great job keeping them under a lot of pressure. ... We dominated the game.”

Mize emphasized that the team’s season-opening Ivy League loss was not due to a

lack of effort.

“It was a tough loss because we played with such heart,” she said. “I think it shows how much heart we have that we were able to come out and get a win (Sunday).”

The Bears will tr y to notch their first Ivy League win of the season when they return home to Stevenson Field on Saturday for a match against Princeton at 4:00 p.m.

“I think we’re all excited to play an Ivy League team at home,” Mize said. “I know our coaches are excited to have a full week of practice before we have another game so hopefully we’ll be ready.”

Volleyball drops 3 to Yale, Harvard and Dartmouth up next continued from page 12 defense with 2.3 blocks per game.

The rate tied the fifth-best pergame block average in Brown history for a single match. On the off chance a ball did get by Vaughan, the Brown back row was ready as four players reached the teens in digs. Lapinski finished with her usual team-leading dig tally with 16, while L yndse Yess ’09 and Lizzie Laundy ’08 picked up 13 and 10 balls respectively. Setter Natalie Meyers ’09 contributed 27 assists along with 10 digs, to complete the quadruple doubledigit dig effort.

“I think we were really focused on what we had to do and we re-

MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

ally played well back there,” Yess said. “We were ver y scrappy.”

The Bears’ effort showed, as they ended the match with five more total digs than the Bulldogs, 62-57, despite the loss.

“It’s always tough playing away at Yale, but we cannot dwell on this,” Short said. “Our freshmen hopefully won’t be as ner vous next weekend now that they’ve played their first Ivy (match).”

The Bears will travel to Harvard on Friday and Dartmouth on Saturday in their second weekend of a three-week stretch on the road.

“If we can win most of these on the road, we’ll be good at home,” Short said.

the ball into the end zone from the 9-yard line, but a missed extra point kept the score at 20-14. Later in the half, the visitors’ kicking woes continued when they hit the left upright on a filed goal from 24 yards out.

On the ensuing Brown drive, with the ball on the Brown 20-yard line, Dougherty fired a bomb down the middle of the field to hit Raymond in double coverage on the left hash mark, and the All-Ivy sprinter blew past the Rams’ defense to give the Bears a 21-20 lead with 7:47 left in the third quarter.

“Going into the game, we knew there were some plays where we could get some throws over the top,” Raymond said. “So we were looking for it.”

Unfortunately, the defense was unable to hold the lead, and on the next drive, URI took a 27-21 lead on a quarterback keeper from the 1-yard line.

But Bruno came right back behind the strong play of receiver Buddy Farnham ’10. Farnham returned the kickoff 32 yards to put the Bears at the URI 40, caught a 20-yard pass to move the ball down the field, and reached to his shoetops on a curl in the end zone to haul in an 8-yard touchdown pass that put Brown ahead 28-27.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Bears missed a chance to increase their lead. With second and goal at the 1-yard line, two rush attempts

by Edwards and a sneak by Dougherty failed to find the end zone.

“We made plays on offense, but we didn’t make enough plays,” said Head Coach Phil Estes. “When you

get inside, and you’re on the twoinch line, and you come away with no points, that should never happen. You’ve got to take a little more pride than that.”

Later in the fourth quarter, Brown capitalized on great field position after Farnham’s 20-yard punt return put the ball on the URI 26. The Bears moved the ball to the seven, and Dougherty’s perfectly executed misdirection left the left side of the field wide open for Edwards, who took the handoff and found the end zone for the third time.

Trailing by eight, Rhody unleashed a dominant running attack, driving 70 yards on 13 plays, capped off by a 1-yard keeper by Cassidy with 1:01 remaining. Needing a two-point conversion to tie, Cassidy rolled out to the right and found receiver Shawn Leonard in the back of the end zone to tie the game at 35.

After the kickoff put the Bears on their own 15 with a minute left, Estes opted to run out the clock to force overtime rather than go for the win in regulation.

“Did you see our field position?

Did you see that we had the wind in our face?” Estes said when asked why he opted against trying for a game-winning score. “All it takes is a kick to win the game (for URI).

It’s as simple as that.”

In the first overtime, Edwards scored his fourth touchdown of the game, from the 1-yard line, to give the Bears the lead. But it took the Rams just one play to tie the game, when Casey found a hole up the middle and ran 25 yards for the

touchdown.

In the second overtime, URI looked once again to Leonard.

Cassidy lofted a pass to the back of the end zone, and the high-jumper for the URI track team made a spectacular leaping catch over Harrison to give Rhody a 49-42 lead.

On Br own’s possession, a 9-yard reverse and a 10-yard pass moved the ball to the 6-yard line, and the Bears looked poised to force a third overtime. On fourth-and-goal, Dougherty found Colin Cloherty ‘10, who caught the ball on the two and lunged for the end zone. But Rhody cornerback Adrian Owen wrapped Cloherty up and brought him down just a yard short of the end zone and the Rams came away with the Governor’s Cup The Brown of fense looked impressive, with Dougherty completing 27 of 47 passes for 407 yards, including six completions to Raymond. But against the Rams’ offense, the Bears’ defense often seemed just a step too slow, and the offense came up just short several times. The loss of the leadership of Bear captains on the field was not an acceptable excuse for Estes.

“No excuses, it doesn’t matter who was there,” Estes said. “Whoever was there should have stepped up to play ... I’ll bet Rhody could list off nine or 10 guys they didn’t have, either.”

The loss puts the Bears at 1-2 heading into next weekend’s home game with the College of the Holy Cross.

“We can be explosive,” Estes said. “We just need to be more consistent.”

EPA cases against polluters drop under Bush

By John Solomon and Juliet Eilperin Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency’s pursuit of criminal cases against polluters has dropped off sharply during the Bush administration, with the number of prosecutions, new investigations and total convictions all down by more than a third, according to Justice Department and EPA data.

The number of civil lawsuits filed against defendants who refuse to settle environmental cases was down nearly 70 percent between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, compared to a four-year period in the late 1990s, according to those same statistics.

Critics of the agency say its flagging efforts have emboldened polluters to flout U.S. environmental laws, threatening progress in cleaning the air, protecting wildlife, eliminating hazardous materials and countless other endeavors overseen by the EPA. “You don’t get cleanup, and you don’t get deterrence,” said Eric Schaeffer, who resigned as director of the EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement in 2002 to protest the administration’s approach to enforcement and now heads the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group.

“I don’t think this is a problem with agents in the field. They’re capable of doing the work. They lack the political support they used to be able to count on, especially in the White House.”

The slower pace of enforcement mirrors a decline in resources for pursuing environmental wrongdoing. EPA now employs 172 investigators in its Criminal Investigation Division, below the minimum of 200 agents required by the 1990 Pollution

Prosecution Act, signed by President George H.W. Bush.

The actual number of investigators available at any time is even smaller, agents said, because they sometimes are diverted to other duties such as service on EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson’s eightperson security detail.

Johnson, President Bush’s chief environmental regulator, foreshadowed a less confrontational approach toward enforcement when he served as EPA’s top deputy in late 2004. “The days of the guns and badges are over,” Johnson told a group of farm producers in Georgia the day before Bush won reelection, according to a news account of the speech.

Administration officials said they are not ignoring the environment but are focusing on major cases that secure more convictions against bigger players.

“We have been on an unprecedented run of success in the enforcement arena,” said Granta Nakayama, EPA assistant administrator for enforcement and compliance assurance. “These are major cases we are pursuing.”

Nakayama said that in the past three fiscal years the EPA has cut between 890 million and 1.1 billion pounds of air pollution through enforcement, making them “three of the four highest years in the agency’s history. ....You’re seeing, I think, a historic period in terms of getting pollution out of the air.”

He added that he hopes to boost the number of criminal investigators and said that over the past five years the agency has won convictions against 95 percent of the people indicted for environmental crimes.

Administration officials acknowledge taking a new approach to environmental enforcement by seeking

more settlements and plea bargains that require pollution reductions through new equipment or participation in EPA compliance programs.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department secured $13 billion in such corrective measures from polluters in 2005-06, up from about $4 billion in the final two years of the Clinton administration.

“Environmental prosecutions continue to be very important to the department,” Roehrkasse said. Settlements and judgments that impose corrective measures “protect the nation’s environment and safeguard the public’s health and welfare,” he said.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, whose panel oversees environmental enforcement, disagrees. “Where once a polluter could expect criminal prosecution, there are now civil settlements. Where once there were criminal penalties, there are now taxpayer subsidies,” Dingell, D-Mich., said.

The environmental crimes unit at Justice Department headquarters in Washington has grown to a record 40 prosecutors. Last year, it secured near-record highs in years of confinement and criminal penalties, Roehrkasse said.

But environmental prosecutions by U.S. attorneys’ offices have sharply dropped as prosecutors facing new pressures on issues such as terrorism and immigration take away resources for environmental prosecutions and try to divert cases to the main Justice Department, EPA agents said.

“Environmental crimes are simply not in the U.S. attorney top 10 priorities,” said one senior EPA official, continued on page 9

W orld & n ation MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

page 9

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Domestic issues move to the fore in D.C. U.N. envoy in Myanmar as anti-regime protests abate

By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Out of a political stalemate over Iraq, domestic policy is surging to prominence on Capitol Hill, with Republicans and Democrats preparing for a time-honored clash over health care, tax policy, the scope of government and its role in America’s problems at home.

The brewing veto fight this week over an expanded children’s health insurance program is only the most visible sign of the new emphasis on domestic issues. Democratic White House hopefuls are resurrecting a push for universal health care while talking up tax policy, poverty and criminal justice. Democratic congressional leaders are revisiting Clinton-era battles over hate crimes and federal funding for local police forces.

The White House, at the urging of congressional Republican leaders, is spoiling for a fight on Democratic spending. And GOP leaders are looking for any opportunity to pick confrontations on illegal immigration and taxation.

At the heart of it all is a central question: Thirteen years after the 1994 Republican Revolution, has the country turned to the left in search of government solutions to intractable domestic problems?

Democrats think that the answer is yes. “As conditions deteriorate, Americans are asking, ‘Who can make it better? Where can we look for help?’ And not surprisingly, government is increasingly the answer,” said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster.

Even Republicans see a growing unease as the driving force in the domestic policy resurgence.

“There’s no question the economy is good, but it’s not a good for everybody,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “When you look at family incomes, there hasn’t been much rise. But there has been increased health care costs, increased energy costs. They’re nibbling up more than the family budget. It just drives more concerns.”

For both parties, domestic policy fights are a welcome break after three election cycles dominated by terrorism and war. Republican and Democratic political leaders say they cannot shy away from the Iraq war.

But for much of the year, the war fight has only shown Democrats to be ineffectual and Republicans to be intransigent.

For Democrats, a break in the war fight could allow them to focus on issues that voters say demand attention. Last year’s senatorial victories

by Democrats James Webb in Virginia and Jon Tester in Montana, and Democratic governors in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa and Ohio, show that a populist message can prevail even in swing states.

For Republicans, changing the subject is simply a relief.

“I think it is territory that tends to unite us more,” said Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss. “Republicans tend to squabble, but when it’s fiscal issues, when it’s economic issues, we tend to come together. That’s what makes us Republicans.”

If so, the GOP may be having an identity crisis. Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and President Bush have met regularly on what Boehner calls his “rebranding” initiative: winning back for the GOP the mantle of fiscal discipline and limited government.

But in the first big domestic battle on Capitol Hill, 18 Republicans in the Senate and 45 in the House abandoned their leaders to side with the Democrats on a five-year, $35 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

House Republicans are expected to muster enough votes to sustain Bush’s anticipated veto of the SCHIP bill, but Boehner conceded that Congress is liable to override the promised veto on a $21 billion water project bill so crammed with home-district projects that it has been denounced by taxpayer and environmental groups alike.

“There’s deadlock on Iraq. Bush is intransigent. It’s clear we’re not going to get the 60 votes to change course on the war. But Republicans are hurting too, so they’re breaking with him on all these domestic issues,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, N.Y., chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Indeed, on the domestic front Republicans may be in the same bind front that they face on foreign policy: Their conservative base is not where the rest of the country is.

For more than a decade, the Democratic polling firm Hart Research

and the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies have read two propositions to Americans: “Government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people” and “Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.”

In December 1995, at the height of the Republican Revolution, a lessintrusive government won out, 62 percent to 32 percent. This month, a more activist government won out, 55 percent to 38 percent. Independent voters sided with government activism, 52 percent to 39 percent.

But Republican voters, by a margin of 62 to 32 percent, still say that government is doing too much.

“The big tectonic plates of American politics are shifting, and the old Republican policies of limited government aren’t working like they used to,” Schumer said. “Their problem is, the Republican primary vote is still the old George Bush coalition — strong foreign policy, cut taxes, cut government, family values. But Americans aren’t there anymore.”

But the same poll did find some hope for the GOP, said Neil Newhouse, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies. Americans said that they do not see a role for the federal government in the current mortgage crisis.

“Americans seem to be saying that the problems the country is facing demand a more activist government, but that this does not extend to all issues or every problem,” Newhouse said.

That’s a difficult needle to thread, but it can be done, said former Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., a top domestic policy adviser to Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney. ThenTexas Gov. George W. Bush showed in 2000 that Republicans can win on traditional Democratic turf with his stand on education and his general slogan of “compassionate conservatism.” They can do that again, especially on health care, Talent said.

“Part of what is at the core of the party is smaller government, fiscal restraint,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., general chairman of the Republican National Committee. “But like in this debate on SCHIP, it’s very important that we as Republicans make it clear we are for insuring children.”

“It’s no longer permissible for us to think 47 million Americans being uninsured is okay,” Martinez said.

Bush’s EPA backs off some polluters continued from page 8 who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the news media.

Prosecutors counter that the EPA has fewer agents and is bringing them fewer cases. “We’re not turning away environmental crimes in order to prosecute other crimes. They are just not being presented in the first case,” said Don DeGabrielle, the U.S. attorney in Houston.

EPA memos show that investigators also have encountered new obstacles to their long-standing practice of directly referring cases to federal or state prosecutors. A new policy distributed May 25 requires agents to seek prior approval from the head of their division and establishes new paperwork procedures. This has slowed agents’ ability to make referrals, congressional investigators said.

Nakayama said he was not “personally familiar” with the new policy and would look into it.

In the fall of 2001, EPA agents descended on a vacant Massachusetts field seeking to prove that a state agency broke the law by demolishing a century-old mental hospital without first removing the asbestos inside.

The investigators detected high concentrations of the cancer-causing material in the buried debris. They located witnesses who said state officials knew about the asbestos but scrapped a plan to remove it before demolition because of the cost, investigative reports show.

The EPA’s top New England law enforcement official recommended charging the state agency and some of its workers with crimes. But after waiting more than three years to decide, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston declined prosecution.

Thomas Kiley, a private lawyer hired to represent the state and its workers during the investigation, said the EPA “was pushing hard” for indictments. Kiley believes that the state’s agreement to clean up the asbestos at the site “may have had some persuasive effect” on the decision not to file charges.

The Massachusetts case is emblematic of the steep decline in criminal cases initiated by the EPA. The number of environmental prosecutions plummeted from 919 in 2001 to 584 last year, a 36 percent decline, according to Justice Department statistics collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Those same Justice Department data also show that the number of people convicted for environmental crimes dropped from 738 in 2001 to 470 last year.

By Mark Magnier Los Angeles T imes

BEIJING — U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met for more than an hour Sunday with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel peace prize, after an apparent snub by senior military leaders of the troubled nation.

The visit came on a relatively quiet day on which government opponents that have led a series of peaceful demonstrations hinted that they might change tactics and undertake an economic boycott.

World leaders including President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have spoken out strongly against political repression in Myanmar, but the junta continues to receive little pressure from China and other Southeast Asian neighbors and trading partners.

Regional giants India and China have remained friendly with the militar y government, lured by the nation’s oil and natural gas reserves. As recently as Sept. 23, India, the world’s most populous democracy, dispatched its petroleum and natural gas minister, Murli Deora, to Myanmar on a state visit in search of deals.

Gambari’s meeting in Yangon with Suu Kyi, who has been under detention for most of the past 18 years, followed a trip to the new capital of Naypyitaw where he conferred with junior ministers but was not granted a meeting with top leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe or No. 2 Deputy Senior Gen. Maung Aye. Few details of Gambari’s meetings were available, but analysts said he hoped to open a dialogue between the ruling generals and Suu Kyi, long the central figure in Myanmar’s political opposition.

Gambari was reportedly holding out for a return to Naypyitaw if top leaders agreed to see him. A U.N. statement said he still expected to meet with Than Shwe before his planned departure Tuesday.

Sunday saw a second day of relative calm on the streets of major Myanmar cities as many citizens remained at home in the face of a heavy military presence and a reported wave of arrests.

News agencies carried an account of one protest in the western state of Rakhine, where an unnamed local resident said more than 800 people marched in Taunggok, shouting “Release all political prisoners!” before police and soldiers forced them to disperse.

As the ruling military junta in Myanmar tightens its grip, monks and the media, political activists inside the country and exile advisers abroad say the movement is mulling a course change: urging citizens to vote with their pocketbooks.

“The way of demonstrating will be changed,” said Tun Myint Aung, a pro-democracy activist in the main city of Yangon, reached by

telephone Sunday. “The steering committee for the mass movement is preparing to come out in favor of a country-wide general strike.”

One advantage of this strategy is that it hits at Myanmar’s crippled economy, analysts said. A catalyst for public protests in recent weeks was the government’s August announcement that gas prices would rise by up to 500 percent.

“It’s always the economy, stupid,” said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project at the Open Society Institute in New York. “Economically it can only get worse. They really don’t know how to handle it.”

A second-front strategy is also under consideration, others say, namely having protesters carry out marches and other acts of civil disobedience in smaller regional cities. The advantage of this, they add, is that it might force the junta to transfer soldiers, spreading them thinner.

“Then the troops have to go to small areas,” said Win Min, a Myanmar academic based in Thailand. “And even if they block the demonstrations, rising prices are still the biggest problem. If the junta can’t solve that, the unrest will continue.”

The standoff in Myanmar has hit a lull since the military junta gave troops the shoot-to-kill order starting Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 people by government figures and possibly many more, say others.

Military leaders also have imposed a curfew, locked monks in their monastery and sharply curtailed communication out of the isolated countr y, knocking the wind out of street demonstrations that at their peak had attracted tens of thousands of protesters.

Pro-democracy groups said they don’t have high hopes for Gambari’s visit. “I don’t think he’ll do much,” said Aung Din, policy director with the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an exile group based in Washington. “Mr. Gambari doesn’t have any power.”

China and Russia have opposed passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions or sharply condemning Myanmar.

Japan, Myanmar’s biggest aid donor, seems in no rush to cut off the funding tap despite the death of a Japanese journalist last week.

Southeast Asian nations have long followed a policy of not interfering in each other’s internal affairs.

The bottom line, some conclude, is that Myanmar citizens ultimately can’t depend on outside help in their bid for a change of government or some sort of compromise between the military and pro-democracy forces.

“The message we are giving to our people is at the end of the day we must struggle for ourselves,” said Thaung Htun, New York-based representative for U.N. Affairs with the Burmese government in exile.

“We have to empower people inside the country.”

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E ditorial & L etters Page 10

MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Staf f Editorial

Burmese days Brown students are criticized ad nauseum for espousing idealism and settling for isolation atop College Hill. Though the University is widely known for its students’ political activism, few campus movements speedily draw multiple student communities to a cause or powerfully reach out to the world beyond Brown. When Brown students do engage in issues that originate off our Hill, it is often with inconsistent ideologies and divisive intra-group politics.

And that’s what makes a group like Brown’s chapter of the U.S. Campaign for Burma so impressive.

When The Herald began a story on what was then a fledgling student group campaigning against an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia just over a week ago, we doubt most Brown students would have been able to find Myanmar on a map.

One week later, as the political conflict in Yangon exploded, the student movement had expanded to seize the campus’ attention and the involvement of several hundred people. Friday’s rally drew Brown’s best-known international experts, a sea of red in support and, possibly, more students than any other campus demonstration of solidarity with Myanmar’s protestors.

On a campus jaded by a litany of impotent campus organizations — like the recently inaugurated Student Union at Brown University, which has been tackling critical issues like whether “decision-making” is one word or two (ahem, it takes a hyphen) — the campaign for Burma, like the Darfur divestment movement that preceded it, is refreshing.

Of course, this so-called Saffron Revolution is garnering tremendous attention on campuses and in communities around the world — despite the regime’s attempts to silence communication in and out of the country.

Myanmar’s flagrantly politically oppressive regime has stemmed protest since the last major pro-democracy movement nearly 20 years ago. That uprising, which also resulted in a violent crackdown, spurred the regime to further isolate Myanmar from the rest of the world.

But in our increasingly interconnected world of text messaging, blogging and cell phone cameras, it seems unlikely that Myanmar’s junta will silence the growing clamor. On campus, Brown students harnessed similar technology, using Facebook invites and e-mail listservs to reach out to their peers, friends and colleagues in an effort to bring attention to the attacks and need for justice in Myanmar.

Friday’s demonstration on Lincoln Field — a sea of hundreds of students in red and purple — demonstrates how students across political affiliations, social circles and cultural ideologies can collectively mobilize for a deserving cause. As leaders of the campaign’s Brown chapter geared up for the march, e-mails spread like wildfire to athletes, Amnesty International members and the College Republicans alike. The broad swathe of those who attended is a heartening reminder that alienating intra-group politics and partisan squabbling are not inevitable outgrowths of activism at Brown.

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Letters Trojan poorly assesses U.’s sexual health To the Editor: During my time here at Brown I’ve had a conversation or two about the phenomenon of global warming. Whenever I bring up studies to bolster the positions of those who oppose the phenomena Brown students have been quick to discount my numbers, citing gross self-interest.

The money-grubbing, self-important, price-gauging oil companies are always to blame for such surveys. Either they commissioned them, paid for them or, in some rare cases, did the surveys themselves.

For years the benevolent manufacturer of Trojan condoms has put out what it has rhetorically mislabeled the Sexual Health Survey (“U.’s performance improves in Trojan sexual health survey,” Sept. 26). For universities, it is quickly becoming the litmus test for campus sexual health. And for University students, it has become the most credible sexual health reference material available (at least in discussions I’ve had about the issue).

I think there is a discrepancy regarding Trojan’s definition of sexual health and mine. Then again, what

do I know? My values are such that I’ve decided not to be sexually active. This decision means that I’m not at risk for emotional consequences of sex, I don’t actually have to know how to use a condom and the only way for me to get gonorrhea is if the virus decides to crawl off some girl’s genitalia, down her pants, up my pants, and attach itself to my most intimate of areas.

It seems to me that Brown’s student body’s reputation for rampant sexual promiscuity, not the University’s availability of condoms or sexual health resources, lands it in the sexually unhealthy category. In fact, I would put forth that the latter is a mere result of the former.

But who am I to question such magnanimous surveyors as Trojan condoms? Surely they have no ulterior motives. Unlike oil companies, they aren’t out to make a buck. Honestly, they have only your sexual health in mind.

Joshua Unseth ‘08 Sept. 26

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O pinions MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

page 11

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

Why conservatives can get behind homosexual marriage

BY HARRISON KREISBERG Opinions Columnist As a Democrat, I don’t often get to say that I agree wholeheartedly with Sean Quigley ’10.

Yet his his recent column (“On the machinations of ‘sophisters, economics and calculators,’ ” Sept. 21) opened my eyes. Do I agree that homosexual marriage should remain illegal? Absolutely not — I’m a Democrat, for goodness sake! Yet I agree with his reasoning about why homosexual marriage should remain illegal. Does this sound like a contradictory, Democratic flip-flop? Perhaps, but I think that Sean made a very effective argument (perhaps accidentally) for the recognition of homosexual marriage in our laws.

“On a micro level, marriage is an end in itself, as all actions subsequent to the formation of the unions have the express purpose of strengthening the intimate love...” Absolutely Sean, and surely intimate love is intimate love no matter who you are. I have plenty of homosexual friends, and the love they have for each other equals any love I have had in any relationship I’ve been a part of. Let’s let private, consenting and mature citizens get closer to each other and get legal restrictions out of their way. Furthermore, “marriage has much instrumental value, as it helps to secure

a more stable and morally healthy existence for those who enter into it.” Right again, Sean.

By strengthening the ties that bind two consenting, mature and loving adults, we bring stability to our private lives in times often fraught with turmoil. These are reasons for encouraging the institution of marriage re-

makes a strong family. The agreement to look after each other takes strain off of society; it strengthens the ties that bind us to each other. For those who are religious, it’s right there in the Bible: “Be subject to one another” (Ephesians 5:21). It’s a powerful statement, and what better thing for society to

I have plenty of homosexual friends, and the love they have for each other equals any love I have had in any relationship I’ve been a part of. gardless of the orientation of the couples. It is, as Sean says, a truly “unadulterated good.”

Let’s encourage those who are ready, willing and able to enter into that covenant to do so, for their own good and for society’s.

“On a macro level, marriage is the union in which two persons enter so as to maintain society’s core organizational unit — the family.” Right again. A loving, caring couple

do than give people who are willing to care for each other as equals in a mature and morally healthy relationship the chance to do just that?

We want healthy homes. That means places where people care for one another and agree to look out for each other. Why not codify it in our laws?

Now some might say, “Ah, family means kids, and since homosexuals can’t reproduce,

this argument stands void.” Well then, we would have to argue to dissolve the morally healthy relationships of infertile couples. However, there is adoption. What better way to improve our society than by putting kids in a loving environment that is morally healthy?

What better way to care for the orphan than in a home where partners are subject to one another in equality before the law and themselves?

Sean is right — love is not the only prerequisite for marriage. A commitment to take care of each other in sickness and in health through the bad and the good, till death do they part — that is what couples must be willing to do. You don’t need to be of the opposite sex to do so. You need to be committed, open and honest.

So what about the argument that marriage an age-old institution and thus should not be altered? Democracy is centuries old, but we constantly seek ways to improve our republic. We adopt new laws, void old ones and strive in every election to improve our country’s governance. I’m a huge proponent of marriage — I hope to get married someday myself. I just think we should improve it. We should never stop questioning ourselves and what we do.

Harrison Kreisberg ‘10 never stops questioning himself.

After Peter Green, some other buildings that should be moved (and videotaped) ALISON SCHOUTEN

Opinions Columnist Brown prides itself on its quirky environment, and the University’s recent architectural undertakings show our financial commitment to this cause. Last year, the Orientation Welcoming Committee had small houses erected when regular information tables just wouldn’t do. The new Friedman Study Center boasts “nap-worthy” furniture. The only thing more puzzling than why we have access to an “Athletic Field Construction Webcam” is, Who would watch it? So when I heard that Brown had picked up a building and moved it down the street, I was not surprised. And of course there’s a professionally edited time-lapse video online!

The relocation of the Peter Green House to the corner of Angell and Brown streets to make room for the Walk is the latest example of Brown’s willingness to spend money on weird architectural projects. If the Peter Green House can find a new home, with a video that delights children and adults alike, perhaps some other moves are in order.

First, Perkins Hall and the Sharpe Refectory should switch places. The dormitory whose distance to campus makes countless rising first-years burst into tears when they open their long-awaited housing letters can find a new home on Wriston Quadrangle.

Instead of suffering from social isolation, the substance-free housing floor in Perkins will spend their Saturday nights watering down the punch with non-alcs at Phi Psi parties. As for the Ratty, a long, brisk walk to the dining hall might counteract the effects of eating noth-

ing but steak fries, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and mini M&M’s. No freshman fifteen for Brunonians, only freshman frostbite!

Another shining example of Brown architectural failure, the newly renovated Wilson Hall, should move into Sciences Park, completing the trifecta of hideous buildings. The Sciences Library and Center for Information Technology make quite a prominent duo, but those geometric statues can’t fill the third spot nearly as well as Wilson’s glossy gray steps

eo blog? The blog will provide a time-lapse (duh) view as the whole system unravels. This should occur as soon as the combination of students’ outrage at having to take required prerequisites and some version of the Y2K bug prove too much for it. Entries will focus on scientists’ search for classes they swear they found yesterday but now are only listed under an unlabelled section that requires a scan of your passport and three thousand Australian dollars before you can access the

If the Peter Green House can find a new home on Brown Street, with a video that delights children and adults alike, perhaps some other moves are in order. and fleshy complexion. To commemorate the reunion of blinding ugliness, the Wilson Hall Road Trip scrapbook will be made available for online viewing. It will feature the building’s move, with the underlying theme that even ugly people have a place in the world. Additionally, said scrapbook will depict MacMillan Hall slowly moving away, trying to distance itself and hang out with the cool buildings.

Why not dedicate a science class to documenting inertia in action with a Banner vid-

professor’s last name.

Money would be well spent on moving Diman House into the Rockefeller Library just for finals week. This is based on an indisputable equation: Interfaith House + Kappa Alpha Theta + Naked Doughnut Run = YouTube sensation. In the empty space on Wriston, we can get a temporary Alpaca farm. Then, Diman-ers can do some serious knitting so when the next finals period rolls around, they’ll have sweaters to give to the SciLis and Wil-

sons who think they have what it takes to serve students a donut off of their genitalia.

Imagine one of the tabs on the Brown Web site featuring a snapshot of a confused Finlandia member being taught the wonders of Christ and forced to sign up for some comedy show to benefit women with no legs.

Fish Co, though not technically a Brown building, should be moved into Keeney Quadrangle. Sometimes it’s hard for senior guys who have never kissed a girl to find things to talk about with freshmen former prom queens on the long walk back. He could pretend to laugh when she launches into “Since U Been Gone” at the top of her lungs, but wouldn’t they both be happier getting it over with so he can start bragging and she can start regretting it and trying to get back together with Keith, her high school boyfriend with Will Ferrell appeal except he isn’t funny? Everybody wins, especially Keith.

Most of all, I hope Brown never stops these ludicrous projects. It is unfortunate that other Ivy League schools rely on old, stately architecture without ever considering how happy their students would be if they had a place to play giant Tetris or take a public nap. We are a unique bunch, and though poor decisions may be made, at least we document them so that everyone knows that we’re not only creative but can hold a video camera as well.

I’m as proud as anyone about our newly large endowment. Perhaps next time Brown wants to build a rocket that takes us to the sun while curing cancer in Cuba, the administration could consider those poor kids in Perkins.

And the rest of us, because the Ratty is making us fat.

Alison Schouten ’08 hates the SciLi but thinks the 13th floor is alright.

S ports M onday Page 12

MonDAY, OctoBER 1, 2007

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD

W. soccer loses to Lions, bounces back versus Army Keys to playoff wins

By Evan Kantor Contributing Writer

Well, it’s basically all set. Representing the American League: The Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels. From the National League: The Philadelphia Phillies, the Chicago Cubs, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies or the San Diego Padres.

These teams Ellis Rochelson MLB Exclusive bring a wide range of strengths and weaknesses to the table — how can we even attempt to predict what will happen? What does a baseball team need to succeed in the playoffs?

First — clutch hitting. In the playoffs, the stakes are the highest they’ve been all season. Every game is televised on national TV. And the opponents are the best in the league. How a team’s hitters fare in these high-pressure situations is crucial to a team’s offense surviving the postseason.

During the regular season in the AL, the Yankees seemed to thrive under nerve-wracking conditions.

With two outs and runners in scoring position, the Yankees hit .289 this year — no other AL team hit over .258. In the National League, each team is equally mediocre at clutch hitting — except for the San Diego Padres, who hit a wimpy .250 in “late and close” situations. If you’re looking for some late-inning October magic, keep your eyes on the Bronx Bombers.

Of course, those dramatic highlight-reel home runs don’t happen when the opposing team has good relief pitching. A solid bullpen is a well-known indicator of postseason success, largely due to the brevity of a playoff series. In a best-of-five or best-of-seven series, the relief corps’ ability to pitch on consecutive days and consistently diffuse highpressure scenarios is key.

In the American League, the Red Sox have the most dominating bullpen – the combination of Hideki Okajima (2.22 ERA), sidewinder Javier Lopez (3.10), Manny Delcarmen (2.05), and closer Jon Papelbon (1.85) is simply devastating. The Yankees’ bullpen could be just as successful, depending on the ever-so-popular 22-year-old Joba Chamberlain. He has pitched in consecutive games only one time in his Major League career; New York can only pray that the American Indian wunderkind and his sparkling 0.38 ERA don’t wilt under the hot lights and heavy workload of October baseball.

In the NL, of the guaranteed playoff-bound teams, the Cubs bullpen seems most prepared to protect its team’s leads. The Chicago pen boasts a healthy 3.66 ERA and a dominating 8.67 strikeouts per 9 continued on page 8

Friday’s 1-0 loss to Columbia isn’t how the women’s soccer team envisioned opening its Ivy League season. But the Bears (2-6-1 overall, 0-1 Ivy) bounced back Sunday afternoon, when they defeated the United States Militar y Academy 2-1 on the strength of the first career goal from Jamie Mize ’09 and a gamewinning goal in the 83rd minute from Lindsay Cunningham ’09 in West Point, N.Y. Mize put the Bears on the board with a beautiful goal in the 17th minute against Army. The ball was played out to the flank for Anne Friedland ’08, who crossed the ball to the back post. Mize finished with a header into the left corner of the Army net.

“Anne was great on the line all day,” Mize said. “She beat a couple defenders and crossed it, and I was on the back post and it trickled in. It was a really great feeling to score a goal, but it wasn’t my goal. It was the team’s goal.”

Brown took the 1-0 lead into the half, and was able to hold the lead until the Black Knights netted the equalizer in the 70th minute.

On an Army free kick, Liz Betterbed floated the ball into the box. A cluster of Brown and Army players went up to head the ball, but it was the hosts’ Sarah Goss who got her

hard to win a ball on the Black Knights’ side of the field. She then set up Cunningham, who drilled the ball into the upper right corner of the net to put the Bears on top

By Benjy Asher Assistant Spor ts Editor

Ashley Hess / Herald Receiver Paul Raymond ’08 tied for the fourth most receiving yards in Brown history Saturday.

continued on page 8

The football team had a lot on the line Saturday afternoon. With President Ruth Simmons in attendance, the Bears were looking both to bounce back from a loss last week at Harvard and to defeat their intrastate rivals to return the Governor’s Cup to Brown.

The football team battled hard and made several brilliant plays, but came up just short in a 49-42 doubleovertime loss to the University of Rhode Island. Despite 514 yards of total offense, the Bears had no answer defensively for the Rams’ triple-option attack.

A lot of things did not go as planned for the Bears, starting with the coin toss.

Brown’s three captains all walked out in street clothes for the coin toss at midfield. Linebacker Eric Brewer ’08 was sidelined with a concussion, guard AJ Tracey ’08 injured his medial collateral ligament and Dereck Knight ’08 was still nursing a foot injury from last week.

But Brown started off strong on its first drive, going 76 yards to take an early 7-0 lead. With a second down and six at the URI 46-yard line, quarterback Michael Dougherty ’09 fired a short pass up the middle to receiver Paul Raymond ’08, who turned the corner to the right sideline, gaining 44 yards on the play.

The slant was just the beginning of Raymond’s big day. The senior continued on page 8

Volleyball starts off Ivies on frustrating note, falls to Yale

By Amy Ehrhart Assistant Spor ts Editor

The first weekend of Ivy League play did not turn out as well as the volleyball team had hoped. The Bears travelled to New Haven,

FRIDAY, SEPT. 28

SUNDAY, SEPT. 30

M. Tennis: Brown 4, St. John’s 3

Field Hockey: Rutgers 2, Brown 0 W. Golf: 9th of 15 @ Yale Invitational W. Soccer: Brown 2, Army 1 M. Tennis: Princeton 6, Brown 1 M. Water Polo: Johns Hopkins 6, Brown 5 @ ECAC Championships

SATURDAY, SEPT. 29

head on the ball and directed it into the goal.

The Bears were tired but mustered enough energy to regain the lead. Kiki Manners ’10 worked

Injured football players hurt Bears’ chances against URI

sports sc O R E B O A R D

Football: URI 49, Brown 42 2OT M. Tennis: Brown 4, Columbia 3 Volleyball: Yale 3, Brown 0 M. Water Polo: Bucknell 10, Brown 6; Brown 9, George Washington 7

Herald File Photo Julia Shapira ’08 of the women’s soccer team, which defeated the United States Military Academy Sunday.

for good.

The Black Knights, who outshot the Bears 25-10, pressured hard for the tying goal. With a minute and a half left, they earned a free kick from just outside the box. Fortunately for the Bears, the shot went just wide and Brown was able to hold on for the win.

“We felt the ef fects of playing Friday night ... two games in three days was a real stress on our players” said Head Coach Phil Pincince. “Army came out and took it to us (in the second half) ... it was a great team win for us.”

On Friday night, the Bears traveled to New York City to face Columbia, the defending Ivy League champions. Despite taking more shots and corner kicks than Columbia, the Bears fell short in a 1-0 defeat.

Chrissy Butler scored the only goal of the match by beating the Bears’ defense in the 28th minute. Butler won a challenge for the ball then drilled it home from 25 yards out.

Bruno tallied 13 shots, with eight coming in the second half, but struggled with accuracy as the team had only one shot on goal in each half and could not find the back of the net. The Bears also held a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks, but could never capitalize.

Brown had a great chance to tie

Conn., in the hopes of pulling an upset against an Ivy powerhouse, but the Bears dropped three straight games to Yale, 30-19, 3028 and 30-26.

“We fought really hard,” said captain Katie Lapinski ’08. “They were blocking us a lot though, and we just need to pick up our energy.”

In the first game, Brown committed 10 errors, allowing the Bulldogs to run away with an easy victor y. But halfway through the second game, the Bears began to hit their stride. Facing a 16-24 deficit, Bruno put together an 11-3 run to draw to 27-26. Two points later, one of Yale’s hitters spiked a ball that was ruled in by a line

judge. But the call was controversial as Head Coach Diane Short insisted the ball was “three feet out.” Yale won the game point and took back the momentum from an angr y Brown squad. “(The refs) made bad calls at some crucial moments,” Lapinski said. “We should have gotten over them, but it still hurt us psychologically.”

Short agreed that the referees took a game away from them.

“It definitely affected us in the second game, that was a point we needed to get,” Shor t said.

“But we need to learn to move for ward.”

The third game wasn’t as clean as the first two for either team, as

Brown hit just under Yale’s .038 hitting percentage at .026. The Bulldogs once again prevailed when they went on a game-ending 6-2 run to break a deadlock at 24.

The Bears’ best run of play came during the second game, when Brown outhit the Bulldogs .283 to .193 with the help of freshmen Megan Toman ’11 and Danielle Vaughan ’11, who finished with eight kills each on the match.

Kiana Alzate ’10 also played well, smacking eight balls down for kills in one of her first matches starting at outside hitter.

Vaughan led the way for the continued on page 8